


half realized dreams

by brightclam



Category: Star Wars Original Trilogy
Genre: Gen, gayyyy, he got two moms, it's not a typo
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-24
Updated: 2017-08-24
Packaged: 2018-12-19 05:39:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 767
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11891175
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/brightclam/pseuds/brightclam
Summary: My version of Lando's backstory. For Lando week, day three: backstory.





	half realized dreams

**Author's Note:**

> this is not my best work but I ran out of time so I guess it'll do

\----  
Lando and his siblings were lucky enough to grow up happy and safe, far away from the empire. They lived on a little planet where the only thing of value were the fish. Their scales shimmered in every shade of the rainbow, and were jeweler’s favorite cheap material to work with. Not expensive enough for hutts or imperials to come and take the planet from them, but expensive enough that they could make a living fishing.

 

His mothers went out every day, taking their deceptively delicate boat out onto the blue sea. Lando would go into the small fishing town’s school in the morning and play on the crystal beaches in the afternoon. His older brother took an apprenticeship in town with the metalworker. His younger sister had a green thumb, she was always bringing the sea plants home in pails and putting them in her garden aquarium.

 

His brother leaves to become a shipbuilder, but is careful to stay on the edges of the universe, far away from the empire. His sister plans to become a farmer in the outer rim and keep her head down.

 

Lando knows that would be the smart thing to do, but he wants more. He wants to explore, wander the planets he’s heard so much about.

 

He tells his mothers, and they support him, but he can tell they’re worried. So he decides that he’s going to do something spectacular, something that will make them all rich, in order to make up for the risk of going into imperial territory.

 

Even as a child, he had the mind of a gambler.

 

He begins to study business, plot how to bring his grand ideas to life. He’s scrolling through information about the prettiest planets in the galaxy when the gas giant catches his eye and the idea for cloud city in born.

 

The technology for it is all already out there, but no one had ever attempted a floating city in a gas giant before because they couldn’t come up with a way to profit. As he clicks through the beautiful pictures of the gas clouds, stained pinks and oranges by the system’s sun, and he knows exactly what his cloud city will look like.

 

He sells it as a tourist destination, a place to have a wedding or an important meeting. The tibana gas extraction has to be kept on the low, or the empire will be on his ass as soon as he opens the city. It’s hard to get investors interested, he spends weeks groveling and arguing with anyone who will listen. 

 

He stays up for nights on end, perfecting his presentation, think up every strategy he could possibly use. He’s told it won’t work a thousand times. Every one of the investors says no. It looks like his dream is dead, at least for the moment. He’s not willing to give up on it, not yet.

 

He reorients, begins gambling, working on smaller ventures. Begins to build a fortune and a reputation in the underworld. He claws his way up into a position of power, but never forgets about cloud city.

 

Finally, he tries again. He’s met with the same reaction, but slightly more polite this time. He works his way through the same list of investors. He’s starting to despair when someone finally says yes. She’s an eccentric old woman, but all that matters is that she’s got the money to fund cloud city.

 

He spends the next three years suffering through all the safety protocols and bills that come with building a giant city floating above a planet. It’s hard to adjust from his previous, more hands on employment, but he eventually gets used to wading through paperwork.

 

By the time the city is ready to be inhabited, he’s fully prepared to be its administrator. Not excited about it, but ready. It’s surprisingly easy to get people to come; both his reputation and the planet’s combining into an irresistible pull. He greets every visitor with a charming smile and a firm handshake.

 

Soon enough, the city has gained a population that's both profitable and enjoyable to care for. He shuts down his other, less legal operations and “goes straight” so he can focus on his childhood dream. He makes a profit, enjoys himself, and stays under the empire’s radar all at the same time. It’s perfect.

 

Until his old gambling buddy becomes hunted by the empire and comes cruising into cloud city’s space.

 

But that’s a story that’s been told enough times already, and there are other, less bitter storytellers to recount it for you. 

\----


End file.
